People are fucking nuts, Part Two.

People are fucking nuts. This country is full of nitwits and assholes. You ever notice that? Nitwits, assholes, fuckups, scumbags, jerk-offs, and dipshits. And they all vote. In fact, sometimes you get the impression that they're the only ones who vote. ~George Carlin

I wrote a Christmas post a week ago.

And this meme is the response I got from some Q-Anon idiot.

I wrote a mostly non-political Christmas post about the reason for the season and a moment of personal discovery in the small hours of a Christmas morning 20 years ago, and this was the response I got. Hell, I thought it was so inappropriate that I reported it. I'm talking about Christmas and some damn moron decides to try and bash liberals? Seriously?

Of course, in these people's ideal world, literally everything is political to the point of puerile and stupid. I seriously don't know how the hell they do it. I honestly wonder if these fools think about liberals more than liberals do...or think about gay people more than gay people do, etc. etc. etc.

How in the hell does anybody manage any time for their own life when they're that hopped up on all this bullshit?

And then, on a whim, I decided to take a look at this person's timeline.

Oops.

Because Donald Trump is apparently the reason for the season, right?

Assuming this is a real person, which I actually don't with any "Q" account at this point, I bet they're real fun at parties.

I mean, seriously, I've not been "blessed" with having to listen to some idiot opine endlessly about how awesome Trump is, hell until a few weeks ago I'd scarcely seen two #MAGA hats in the wild, like ever.

And I'm just fine with that, although I've seen a few old nebbish white people wearing Trump 2020 hats in the last few weeks, and the occasional car sticker. I don't actually live in all that liberal of an area (It's pretty centrist, if I may say so myself, used to lean Center-R, now leans more Center D) and open Trump Supporters are pretty rare around here. Dude has lost more of his 2016 voters than he's kept, so far as I can tell.

So what the fuck is up with this dumb ass?

I don't know, actually. Assuming they're a real person it sounds like they have some kinda serious mental issues.

Why do I say that?

Look at the bottom center meme.

Normal people do not constantly go around thinking about guns, knives, and people they don't like.

In point of fact, people who do shit like that, generally speaking, ought to be eating their food with a plastic spork as far as I'm concerned.

Yet they seem to imagine themselves killing people even as they preach endlessly about their shitty politics, all to the constant cheers of a roaring mob of people who look just like them. What happens to the rest of us in this monstrous vision, I'll just go ahead and leave to the imagination.

We need to start finding a way to deal with this crap, America.
Because if we don't "Death to America" is going to be a lot more than some Iranian slogan.

And vote the nuts out, like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

People are fucking nuts, Part One.

People are fucking nuts. This country is full of nitwits and assholes. You ever notice that? Nitwits, assholes, fuckups, scumbags, jerk-offs, and dipshits. And they all vote. In fact, sometimes you get the impression that they're the only ones who vote. ~George Carlin

I got home from work this morning, after having been so damn busy I couldn't check social media all night, to find that "Death To America" was trending on Twitter.

God damn it, it's fucking New Years.

Apparently, our Embassy in Iraq was attacked, and had to be at least partially evacuated. Note: So far as I'm aware, the Marine guards are still there. That's a pretty damned bad situation. It is, or should be, something that every person in this country is following or at least aware of. This is a big deal, third-party fighters, likely backed by Iran, stormed our Embassy and apparently shot it out with the Marines.

That's pretty damned bad, like potentially starting a war bad. I'm kind of upset about it for a few reasons. I have people who I care about who could end up in combat because of this bullshit.

But you know what? I ended up having to bitch at my weirdo ex-partner because she called me on the phone and wanted to pray for me because she thinks she has the "Gift Of Healing." She texted me this morning and I told her I didn't want to talk because work was shit-fucked and I was in a lot of pain. So what does the goofy bitch do, but decide to bother me more, and deliberately and particularly try to do so by shoving her beliefs, which she knows I believe are wrong, right in my face.

I'm in pain, and then I have to painfully hobble out the door and answer the phone on the porch because reception is shit in the house and she knows this. She just doesn't care.

What I want, or even what is going on in the world, is not important in the face of her need to feel important and religious. Did I mention she has a kid that's handily in the age-range for military service who's been raised on nothing much but this Evangelical horse shit?

If I was her I'd be worried about a lot more than an ex that's a few ex's ago right now. But again, she just doesn't care.

I hope she's not surprised when I don't answer the phone again. I think we're done talking for awhile. I'm legitimately pissed.

Apparently, the embassy attack happened as revenge for US airstrikes.

This shit is pretty much exactly what Republicans tried to make the Benghazi attacks into, except that the attackers in that situation were not backed by any state actor and there wasn't anybody at fault on our side. It was, as the old saying goes "shit happens." People got killed, and that didn't stop Republicans from trying for years to use it to bury Hillary Clinton.

Ambassador Stevens and the other people who were killed were just an excuse. Did I mention I know somebody who interacted with that guy online, for whom this was a bit more personal? To the rest of us, Benghazi became a ridiculous political witch hunt, but there were actual people for whom this whole mess must have been torture.

You'll notice that the fact that people are fighting and likely dying in a place they shouldn't have to doesn't stop Lindsey Graham from getting in a subtle dig at Clinton as well, in the process of trying to fluff Trump. Of course, he literally sounds like he has no idea what is even going on, because he likely doesn't.

He doesn't care, and his personal bullshit is way more important to him than the lives of United States Marines. My God, Colonel Graham, the Airmen- and women of the South Carolina Air National Guard must have just loved you.

Those diplomats and those Marines have families too. He doesn't give a shit.

Because his personal bullshit is way more important to him than what is actually happening.

We are in the middle of a major national security incident that easily can and likely will spiral out of control...and Trump is Tweeting about Joe Biden.

Are you noticing a pattern here yet?

These fucking people don't care, about much of anything, really, except satisfying whatever their wants are at the moment, and god forbid any other human being or their actual needs get in the way of the wants of the comfortable, the privileged, the religious, and the wealthy.

America is, if not overrun with these assholes, at least possessing an overlarge share of the world's population of them. As I've said before, it quite honestly seems like 30% or so of us are not salvageable as human beings. And hell, in one way or another I've been trying to talk sense to that ex-partner of mine for 20+ years now.

You cannot reason with unreasonable people.

Republicans have become so jacked that they're starting to lose even many of their core supporters.

They sense a reckoning on the horizon, and it's making them even more unhinged, and their rhetoric even more violent, and their ability to care about anything outside of themselves and their tunnel vision wants even less and it wasn't that great before.

I mean, for fuck's sake the entire world...including us...uses the metric system and has for years (as I stare at the 2-liter Pepsi bottle on my desk and for that matter remember where I learned about clicks and meters and stuff like that.) This is the world, and American conservatives could give a shit, because they love the idea of an ignorant sound-bite to drive up ratings from their drooling followers.

For that matter, forget Iraq for the moment. People are getting shot or stabbed in some kind of mass attack damn near every day right here in America and there is starting to be a definite ethnic/racial, political and even religious component to a lot of these attacks...so what do the conservatives do? Pitch the idea of a gun in every pocket, commies under the bed like it's 1950, not 2020, and n****** gonna steal yo stuff while Mexicans take your job yet again, as if more firearms in circulation, combined with mass racial prejudice, would ever do more than up the body count considerably...and I say that as a gun owner.

But ya know, it's actually worse than that. One hell of a lot of these ass clowns don't see obviously middle-aged, overwhelmingly white-bread Americans of quite obviously European heritage as American either.

Mr. Guterman here, for example, is apparently a Never Trump conservative judging from the company he keeps, and his Twitter feed is about 90% vintage photography. I have no damned idea what he did to set off the rando, none at all.

As I've often wondered before, just where the hell do these drooling morons think they're going to deport a Native-born American citizen to?

I mean, I'm fairly certain the average Norwegian probably speaks better English than I do and the people are cool. But I'll be honest, I'd be more than a little lost in that country even though I've been there once, because I sure as hell was the first time. Of course, I spent most of my life as an American Conservative Christian and I don't even goddamn well recognize my own people anymore. So there's that. I can remember when talking like Scott here is would get your ass beat, by other conservative Christian white dudes.

And you know what? For a decent percentage of that time I lived in California, in heavily Republican Orange County, to boot. I remember riding with my Mom to school every day, dealing with the insane traffic around Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, and going to a pretty diverse Catholic school that was not too far from there. A hell of a lot of the kids I went to school with were Mexican or Vietnamese, not to mention there were military-dependent kids of many different ethnic groups besides that...and you know what? We were damned near all from some level of conservative family...and if you talked like this idiot who's saying "California sucks" somebody would tell you "Why don't you move somewhere else and see how you like it?" California hasn't, as I understand it, really changed all that much except that it's more expensive to live there and its state government is a bit more liberal now. Well, that and the California Republican Party that produced Nixon and Reagan has just about destroyed itself. As if that's anybody else's fault besides their own?

Yet that's enough for conservatives and those influenced by conservatives to talk about California like it's some kind of third-world country or something.

Does any of this bother you yet?

If we don't do something to stop this endless foray into crazy-land, this march ever rightward into drooling mental illness, these motherfuckers are going to kill people and however Impeachment or the elections work out, this is going to end with Americans shooting at each other and when it's a safe bet that both sides will have plenty of nuclear weapons...well that doesn't work out well for anybody.

We, as a people, have got to stand up and put a stop to this shit.

Or "Death To America" will come by no hand but our own. It's easy to say that we'll have conservative fear and hate to thank for it, but to a great extent liberal inaction is to blame for even letting this shit happen in the first place.

Vote the bastards out, all of them.

Depart from me, ye that work iniquity

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. ~Matthew 25:31-46

I saw this article on Facebook earlier today.

"Since 2011, the city has marked a 54 percent decline in people experiencing homelessness, according to local point-in-time counts. Thibeaudeau credits the falling numbers of people living on the streets to the city’s adherence to a set of principles known as Housing First. The policy has enabled Houston to put more than 18,000 people into permanent housing situations with their own leases. “We shifted a lot of dollars out of short-term, temporary, high-barrier projects, and reallocated them all toward permanent solutions,” Thibeaudeau says. “That really is the reason that our homelessness has been driven down.”

Housing First runs contrary to the approach favored by Marbut, the consultant who was named director of the U.S. Inter-agency Council on Homelessness last week. Marbut has pushed for shelters that set up barriers to treatment, namely sobriety. For example, at Haven for Hope, a shelter founded by Marbut in San Antonio, homeless people with substance-abuse problems must sleep outside in an exposed courtyard until they can pass a drug test."

WHAT?!

Trust me, if I had to sleep outside in an exposed courtyard, that's not going to motivate me to stop drinking or using drugs.

In fact, it would probably make me use more drugs, worse drugs, anything to dull the pain or ward off the chill at night.

And for anybody who thinks that you can police that crap away, I humbly suggest you talk to somebody who's spent any length of time incarcerated.

There are three things that sinful, unregenerate Man will always find ways to do:

Get High, Have Sex, and Kill People.

And conservatives, the supposed masters of the atavistic thought process, fucking refuse to get this and scoff at me when I point it out. In fact they'll say all type of dumb shit to avoid having to acknowledge that another point of view exists or is valid.

Why? Because for the most part they are obsessed with the idea of punishing other people, mostly for being other people.

These conservative assholes LOVE the idea of a punitive approach to this, that, or the other thing because they think if they punish people hard enough, they'll get the result they want.

You know, it never really works that way in real life. It's human nature to resist, and in order to beat addiction you have to have a reason TO beat it because you have to want to and even then, some people just can't.

For all of their atavistic thought process or obsession with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, they never fucking get it, because too many of these people simply can't or won't see outside of their own limited sphere of experience...and that's quite often by choice.

It's become quite fashionable in conservatism to be dumber than a fucking rock.

And such people often want everybody else to do the hard work of life, hard work that trends toward being piled on fewer and fewer people.

Why the fuck do you think we even have an Opioid crisis? Why in the fuck do you think suicide is at a damned-near all-time high, particularly among veterans and people who work high-pressure jobs?

If you keep piling stuff on to a person, that doesn't motivate them to change or work harder or do more. If there's not also some kind of positive reinforcement or at least the simple act of giving a shit, either it just won't get done or the person will give up, quit, commit suicide, or whatever is the easy way out.

"The Trump administration may pursue its agenda on homelessness on other fronts. An executive order—said to be the brainchild of Benjamin Hobbs, special assistant to the president for domestic policy—might not materialize for weeks (if ever). But such an executive action would reinforce the dynamic in Texas, where the conservative governor has sought to overrule the work of liberal leaders in Austin to legalize tent encampments, for example.

But the broader campaign to criminalize homelessness hit a snag on Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case from Boise, Idaho, about whether local and state governments can make it a crime for people to sleep outside. A Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal appeals court’s decision might have enabled cities to prosecute people forced to sleep outside."

Serious question: Where the fuck else do they think people who have nowhere else to go are gonna sleep?

And when the Supreme Court...the conservative Supreme Court that you just packed, no less...the highest authority regarding our laws, just told you no and in effect told you to go fuck yourself by not even taking the case...what the fuck are you going to do without simply breaking the law?

Not that this is about laws or that these motherfuckers give a fuck about laws or care that there are things called laws.

Not one damned bit of this is designed to help people. I'd be willing to bet there's some asshole rich white person who just thinks they can make more money off of warehousing people and locking them away so that the comfortable don't have to see them. Rich, white, comfortable assholes have been saying shit like that forever, and if you think adding more cops to this kind of situation will ever improve things, you're wrong.

Until we address health care, income inequality and mental health care and funding in particular, nothing is going to improve, and punitive solutions or relying on capitalism will only create more dead people.

And that's exactly what these fucking people want.

Because literally anything is better to them than making them have to give a shit about somebody else.

The cruelty is the goddamned point.

And there's nothing Christian about that.

For that matter, you can preach right from the Word and if it doesn't fit with what comes out of Trump's mouth, some MAGA nut will try and argue with you.

This crap is ridiculous, and at this point if you don't think it's going to end with Americans shooting at each other, and with the disabled, the poor, people of color and even the religious or the "wrong" wealthy people being attacked for simply being what they are or belief in something other than the greater glory of Donald Trump and White Supremacy, you have another thing coming.

Most Trump Supporters that I know or have ever met or even heard of are not wealthy. This dragon, once unleashed, will eat them too.

No, Christians, you are not safe.

Happy fucking holidays, I guess.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 ~Matthew 7:16-23

Christmas, 2019

Luke 2

2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

It's Christmas.

As such, despite my choice of header photo I traditionally prefer to avoid political commentary on this particular day. I will say that I've noted that Christmas celebrations and displays seem muted this year, as if all the crazy stuff that's going on has worn down people's spirits even in this holy time. It honestly seems like the busiest place around these past few days has been Wal-Mart, even though the usual capitalistic feeding frenzy seems to have been down a bit this year.

And yet I'm reminded of what were, for me at least, worse times than these.

During the Christmas season of 2001, I was in the process of going through a divorce. I was living in the dorms at the local community college and because the dorms were closed for the Christmas break I was staying at my Mom's house for a couple of weeks.

I had worked a Christmas eve closing shift at Big Boy, where I was a line cook. It was normally my second job but during the break I was working full-time hours since my other job as a shift manager at the college cafeteria was not a thing for the duration of the break. I'd previously been a dishwasher and maintenance man for the company, as well as having been a cook in different restaurants in the local chain of franchises several times.

So when I'd volunteered to work Christmas Eve for the obligatory time-and-a-half, I got it. We'd been busy that night. I needed the money to pay off bills my ex-wife had racked up.

I was, in fact, driving home in my 1994 Ford Tempo, exhausted, in a very intense snow storm at three in the morning. It sucked. It was an hour from work to my Mom's house in the darkling snow.

At times, it was like driving inside a snow-globe, with the snow coming at you from all directions at once in the darkness. I'd been in worse, but not by choice.

I was surfing radio stations to stay awake.

And I happened upon this broadcast from a Christian radio station, which mentioned that Biblical scholars had determined that Jesus was not born in December, but rather most likely in August or September, based on the events around the time of His birth as described in the Gospels.

And I thought, here all these people make a big show of charity and religiosity this time of year, every year, and we don't even know for certain what date Jesus was actually born on, since Christmas and the traditions mostly associated with it are primarily co-opted Pagan celebrations...as is Easter, while we're at it.

So if the truth is that we don't know, why do people act all charitable and nice and religious (when they're not getting into fights over sale-price TV's or trying to run over brown-skinned teenage girls) this time of year?

Shouldn't people be trying to be charitable and decent and behave as faithful Christians if they Believe...all year instead of just for a few weeks in November and December, if they're serious about following Christ and honoring their Lord?

If we don't know, shouldn't we at least try to conduct ourselves like decent human beings all year, so as to avoid being an asshole when His forgotten actual birthday rolls around?

It was an odd insight for me to have at the time, given that my divorce had started the process of me leaving Christianity, though it would not be complete for another seven years.

But I had it anyway.

And even today, I often find myself appalled by and write about the conduct of those who call themselves the most faithful of Christians...and as anybody who reads my work knows I often call it out from a specifically Biblical standpoint.

Because you just can't reach some people any other way. I know this.

I guess there was and is something that's never let me go completely, I can't explain it. It simply is.

And the truth is, if we are to survive on this world, the only home we all have, we as a species are going to have to do better. We are going to have to find some other metric than money to measure ourselves by, or at least spread it around enough to make sure that more people have a decent, survivable income. We are going to have to cut back on the tribalism, as well, otherwise there will be more conflicts and things will get worse. We are all one tribe, ferrets and humans and lions and mighty jungle trees. We are all Earthlings. We humans had best start remembering that.

We live in a Universe not made for us, but made to reflect the glory of an infinite God.

Is peace on Earth and good will toward others so hard?

...There went out a decree from Cracker Barrel Caligula...

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. ~Luke 2:1-11

I saw this last night, while I was on break at work. "Real Estate broker uses washed-up rapper to pitch putting presidential library on site of trailer park."

A trailer park that, per the article, is up for sale due to "Infrastructure problems" this being Florida, meaning the water table is likely filling up with saltwater due to sea level rise, among other things.

And the asking price is a billion dollars. Seriously?

I know the majority of the rest of us think Trump is an idiot, but this real estate guy must really think that Trump is an idiot.

It's Christmas Eve.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Seriously, can't these motherfuckers maintain even the barest shred of dignity or sense on Christmas Eve?

No, no, I guess they can't.

Trump is having the site of a trailer park (!) pitched to him by Vanilla Ice (!) as the site of a future presidential library, and Mike Huckabee looks like he's half a jug of Moonshine away from Dueling Banjos and sodomy.

I used to hunt, and I currently live in a trailer park, and...I don't know, help me here. I also used to be a Republican and I guess I just sort of expected, I don't know, some sense of dignity or gravitas from Republican elected officials, current or former.

For fuck's sake when Dick Cheney negligently shot a dude in the face he didn't brag about it on social media. I mean, there were excuses aplenty, but he didn't film a firearms-safety fuck-up live on Twitter while sounding like he's aspiring to some mutant combination of low-rent PBS hunting show and the Old Time Gospel Hour.

For that matter, I'd expect somebody like Mike Huckabee to be a better shot than his needing a semi-automatic shotgun suggests he is. When I was a teenager, my uncle gave me a 16-gauge break-action double-barrel shotgun for duck and turkey hunting, and I'm not gonna lie, if I needed more than two shots to bring down the game the very least I could expect would be to get laughed at.

And if I left my weapon leaning up against a tree, especially loaded, I could logically expect to get smacked upside the head and have it taken away, by a guy whose experience in the Michigan Army National Guard was far outweighed by his years in the woods hunting all type of game, but whose experience in the military also made him very conscious of both safety and the need for accuracy.

I had better than this crap expected of me before I was old enough to vote or join the military, and this is our Republican Party now?

I'm not gonna lie, I find it kind of disgusting that politicians in the United States of America in 2019 brag about being idiots for all the world to see. It's only slightly worse that they do so unintentionally.

And then some dumb bitch in Iowa apparently both assaulted people of color at a gas station and did a hit-and-run on a kid who was walking down the street minding her own business, apparently because Racism, that's why.

She was quoted as saying the girl "Looked Mexican."

No word on the kid's ethnicity, but seriously? Who in the hell is dumb enough to think they're going to get away with running over a kid for some stupid reason?

Laws against murder or attempted murder don't get waived because the victim has brown skin. Oh, and allegedly the woman had used Meth before doing this.

Look, ya'll, if Presidential libraries on the site of broken-down trailer parks, Governor Pretty Mouth, and people running over kids based on their complexion while fucked up on Meth is what modern "Conservatism" has come to, I'll happily double down on my previous statement that I want no damned part of it whatever.

And this is how people want to spend this holiday season?

It's Christmas Eve, can't these people turn their brains back on for two damned days?

I just don't fucking get the attraction to this kind of crap, and I've lived through some pretty fucked up holidays.

The Abyss.

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name: ~Amos 5:7-8

Last week, Christianity today came out in favor of impeaching Trump and removing him from office, and for the same reasons that they advocated for Bill Clinton's impeachment 20 years ago.

9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. ~Amos 5:9-10

Trump's reaction, of course, was to quickly brand Christianity Today as "Far Left" which is news to me, given that 20 years ago I was a subscriber and because even in their own editorial in favor of Trump's impeachment and removal, these people missed no opportunity to kick the Democrats collectively right in the nuts. Christianity Today, while making efforts to support Evangelicals of all political stripes, obviously trends Republican. They took their time weighing in on Clinton 20 years ago, and it took them 3 years to condemn Trump. But they get the right idea, Country before Party, actual beliefs before Trump. I don't have to agree with their particular take to respect that they could arrive at that conclusion. They obviously took their time and thought about it.

Yet Trump, who is basically an atheist so far as I can tell, seems interested in appointing himself some kind of high priest of Evangelicalism, not based on beliefs but because he appears to think he's purchased such an office with favors. Trump doesn't believe in Christ or Christianity, to him it's all a transaction. The white Evangelicals cheer for him, so he gives them stuff. I have to wonder, if some other group were to abase themselves more, or cheer louder, would they get more stuff from this guy who seems to see himself as some kind of orange Santa Claus to those who make him feel good about himself, while desiring to take a baseball bat to the heads of those who don't?

For fuck's sake Trump can't even be bothered to get the initials of the magazine right.

He can't be bothered to understand that if people really believe in something, one's religion is not something that can be taken away. The same with one's guns, in America at least, under the same Constitution that he keeps trashing.

That should tell you a lot about Trump, and his mentality. And Republicans go-to move is go compare Trump to Jesus?

Worse, there are those, such as Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) who have defended this arrangement.

And Trump's response to constitutionally being impeached for reasons explicitly spelled out in the text as valid is to trash-talk the Constitution.

Anybody wanna tell me what exactly is Christian about any of this garbage? It's not just that Trump, steeped in moral relativism, reduces Evangelical Christians to nothing more than some special interest group like oil companies or wealthy vineyard owners, it's that Evangelicals are enthusiastically going along with this in search of temporal power. I was taught that it matters how you get things. This ain't the right way.

"...My Kingdom is not of this world." Hello? Is this thing even on? Jesus specifically said that the powerful and wealthy would have a harder time getting into heaven, because they don't care about spirituality, but rather about possessions and power over others, and that is not what Jesus stood for.

For as much therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. ~Amos 5-11

Not that any of these motherfuckers care about Jesus. To them, Christ and Christianity and conservatism are nothing but convenient routes to power, which enable them to fool the feeble-minded more easily.

Matt Shea, a state legislator in Washington, was kicked out of the state's house Republican caucus for, essentially, supporting domestic terrorism, and he refuses to resign. This dude is basically not much more than a militia nut in a suit, and other than the lowering of standards because of the Iraq war I'm not sure how he ever made it into the Army, much less passed the Bar or got elected to the Washington State House. That this dude has been in those three particular positions and STILL supported Cliven Bundy should tell you that his word isn't worth a bucket of warm piss and he's probably never been fit for a job he's actually had. I find it telling that instead of the traditional fallback of "Because Jesus" Shea immediately compares himself to Trump and claims the Democrats were out to get him. Bitch, you should be having a lot more to worry about than Democrats as far as I'm concerned. You supported a rebellion against the United States on behalf of some old fucker who simply didn't want to pay his bills. You should be watching the skies for Reaper drones as far as I care. Fuck you and everything you stand for, with Hellfire missiles.

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. ~Amos 5:12

Look, ya'll, I'm a former Christian. I have a church background, I spent most of my adult life as a conservative Republican. Nobody is more disgusted than me that these people have basically decided to bow down before a scumbag like Donald Trump and are actively conspiring to start a civil war and murder the rest of us, but that's what this is and if you don't think the first thing they'll throw in the trash in the process is the Bible, then you have another thing coming. This bullshit cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be waited out, and it will only get worse.

Take it from somebody who's been there, the only way these people can be talked out of it is if a bunch of shit goes real bad for them and they can't actually deny that religion was a part of it...or if they actively get kicked out by their fellow nuts. I was both put in the position of questioning it all by my divorce, and run out of Christianity altogether when I came back as a more moderate Christian, and if you don't think these people will gladly Kamikaze the whole of American Christianity in the service of Donald Trump and their own shitty agendas I humbly invite you to take a serious look at just why the rest of the Western world is so damned secular.

As a former conservative myself, I quite wonder what was even the point of anything I did during that part of my life. These people clearly don't care about anything now.

These people are going down, they are going to destroy themselves, and they know it. Hell, they revel in it, because they think that their reward will be some kind of eternity of blessedness with Jesus Christ, or Donald Trump, and I'm honestly not sure these morons can tell the difference.

They cannot be argued with or reasoned with, and defeating them politically is almost certainly less than half the battle. This is going to come down to a fight.

And the worst part is, they don't even know who or what they want to fight for. I'm not even sure they care. Just the fact that anyone has questioned them, much less actively resisted them or voted against them, has enraged a lot of these people beyond all reason.

There's a lot of us that do care, though, and I've been warning you all along, the only people who will profit from this mess in the end will be the coffin-makers.

But it's coming. The fact that we've tolerated this apocalyptic cult in our midst long enough for them to even change God-heads all but guarantees it, if not with this crisis, then the next one.

Hell, if they lose badly enough to get the idea that nobody wants their civil war, they'll blame the rest of us for that, too.

There's no damned difference between these people and Al Qaeda or Daesh or the Taliban. and Trump thinks he can use them if he gives them enough presents?

There's already a movement springing up among younger right-wingers that says he's not going far enough.

When somebody tells you who they are, believe them the first time.

There's a hell of a lot of these people that are nothing but monsters, and the first people they go after are going to be those conservatives who aren't monsters, or who aren't monstrous enough.

And it's already started. We've been pushed to the edge of the Abyss by "Conservative" nihilism. I'm sorry but I was not taught that nihilism was not a conservative value.

Some of us have been pushing back all along, but all of us need to start.

If you're not pushing back, you're part of the problem.

The ugly Orange truth.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. ~Zechariah 9:9

You know, this whole attitude that some of these fucking people seem to have that Trump is basically Jesus has always seemed kind of fake to me.

The damned-near ecstatic, orgiastic worship of Trump that's broken out since the impeachment started seems even more contrived..

I mean, the cult is real enough, the messianic streak that both Trump and his followers have is real enough. The "We got caught, so we'll just go at it harder, even if it breaks the country." is true enough. I'm just saying that religion in general, and Evangelical Christianity in particular, was likely never anything more than a cover, or a means to an end. Very likely, the religion was always a lie. It might not be a lie that they'll admit to...even to themselves...but it is a lie nevertheless.

Unless of course, they all really are dumb enough to keep infinitely doubling down on this particular pair of twos.

It never ceases to amaze me how willing so many "Conservatives" have been to set everything they ever claimed to believe in on fire...for Trump of all fucking people. Speaking as a former conservative myself, the longer this goes on the less surprised I actually am that two out of three of the primary "Conservative" shibboleths...the Bible and the Constitution...have gotten thrown out the window and none of these fucking people that are left (or haven't been branded apostate by the mob) even care.

Let me tell you where this started, or perhaps more accurately the kind of person it started with and why.

I have this one ex-partner, the all in for Jesus, all or nothing Evangelical-Pentecostal type. I've known this woman for 20 years. We were pretty involved for about a year, we dated...or just plain fucked...off and on for years after. For most of that time I was a conservative. Despite her own beliefs being often weirdly extreme, she is not a Trump Supporter. (Note: Nobody is actually more surprised about that than me. This woman spent hours trying to convince me to vote Republican in 2008, not because of McCain but because she liked Palin.) She also lives primarily on child support and welfare...and always has.

We've been talking again lately, her current relationship isn't working out and I strongly suspect she's fishing for a replacement. I've been politely tolerating this for a few months, mainly because she really does need to get out and I know she won't get decent advice from anybody else in her life.

I caught her on her bullshit over the weekend. It was always the aside, the snarky comment at the end, or the minor drive-by comment where she slipped up and told you what she really wanted. She was like "God is going to pour out all this stuff...not for me of course...well maybe a little of it is." You see, it's all for Jesus of course...but it doesn't take long before the thought of "Hey, could I get some of that?" pops into these people's heads.

It's not about Christ, it's about glory, money, power and status. (See Also: Mike and "Mother" Pence.)

It's the same with the Self. It's not about me...until it is...and you have to be quick to catch the bait and switch.

After I caught her on it she got mad at first, until she figured out I wasn't impressed. Then, she was...pretty much with an air of "Oh shit, I got caught" suddenly penitent and wanting to be all buddy-buddy. I kept on her, and she'd boxed herself in to the point where she had to just take it. I thought it was fucking great.

But the truth is, American Christianity...particularly its Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal strains...is full of people who go to church, or log in on the Web or tune in on TV, not to commune with God but to see the Pastor or some self-appointed equivalent that scratches their itching ears.

But what they really want to do is gaze at a reflection of themselves and their imagined religiosity that they use to justify it all.

It's much the same with Trumpism.

It's not really about Trump. He's just the avatar, the symbol of the moment. Trump is, as many people have opined, the symptom rather than the problem. The "Conservatives" true Messiah isn't actually Trump. And that, as I've said before, is why this will end in blood.

You'll notice who these fools are nominating to replace him after some kind of Unconstitutionally-inflated term in office, right?

Themselves.

It's always the bullshit asides and drive-by, throwaway comments where these kind of people reveal what's really going on in their heads.

For too many of these damned fools, Trump is nothing more than a political or religious self-insert.

Their real Messiah is, well, them.

And they're not even hiding it anymore.

But they'll sure get mad if you point it out. Then they'll want to be your best friend when they can't find a way to keep bullshitting you. Then they'll stick the knife in your back as soon as it's turned.

If you think these people will be any different on the subjects of Impeachment and Trump, you have another thing coming. That's why I say this will end in blood and fighting in the streets.

It's coming, watch your back.

I want to talk about me
Want to talk about I
Want to talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally
I want to talk about me
I want to talk about me.
~Toby Keith.